Business Digest September 14, 2012

Corinne Kingery will open a skin-care clinic in Lafayette on Sept. 22. The Acne Lab at 101 1/2 E. Chester St. will offer treatments accompanied by products and education.

NAME CHANGES

The nonprofit member group Boulder East is expanding and changing its name in an effort to get more residents to bus, bike or find other alternative transport to get where they need to go. The newly named Boulder Transportation Connections has an approximately $80,000 Denver Regional Council of Governments grant, a $65,000 community-investment grant and a $20,000 Regional Transportation District grant — among other funding — to encourage residents to take a bus or bicycle or to use a carpool or vanpool. The group has expanded to work with residents and companies throughout Boulder rather than just East Boulder, which is the main reason for the name change.

BRIEFS

Boulder-based Thanasi Foods LLC is introducing Bigs Sunflower Seeds to the Canadian market. Bigs, which launched in the United States in March 2009, features fire-roasted, jumbo-size sunflower seeds in five flavors: Frank’s RedHot Buffalo Wing, Hidden Valley Ranch, Salted and Roasted Original, Vlasic Dill Pickle and Bacon Salt Sizzlin’ Bacon.

AT&T announced Sept. 6 that it will roll out 4G LTE service to Boulder and Denver customers by the end of the year. AT&T Inc. (NYSE: T) is catching up with Verizon Wireless, which already provides 4G LTE service to Boulder and Denver. Sprint and T-Mobile do not provide 4G LTE. 4G LTE — it stands for “fourth generation long-term evolution” — is capable of delivering data to customers 10 times faster than the older 3G, or third generation, standard. The technology allows smartphones to access the Internet faster for activities such as downloading apps or streaming videos.

LodgingDeals.com, a website for vacationers looking for luxury vacation deals at resorts in the United States, Canada, Mexico, the Caribbean and the South Pacific, has been launched by Boulder-based Lodging Deals LLC. Resort units are offered at 25 percent to 80 percent off retail value, directly from timeshare owners who are unable to use their allotted vacation weeks. LodgingDeals.com was founded by Jim and Katherine Velasco of Boulder.

Longmont-based craft brewery Oskar Blues LLC began distributing in the eight-county Chicago metropolitan area Aug. 20. The beer is available on tap and in cans. Oskar Blues’ launch included a week of 70 events in area bars, restaurants and stores as the company tried to raise its profile and build on existing goodwill. Oskar Blues hired two sales representatives for the area, and worked with its distributor, Windy City Distribution, to roll out to 350 liquor stores, bars and restaurants. Illinois is now the 27th state to which Oskar Blues distributes, following its expansion into Alabama in July.

In-flight Internet service from Broomfield-based Aircell Business Aviation Services LLC will be added to nearly 100 of Net Jets Inc.’s aircraft. The additional systems will expand NetJets’ connected fleet by approximately 40 percent. The installation process is expected to be completed by mid-2014. With the service, NetJets passengers and flight crews will have high-speed Internet service above 10,000 feet in the continental United States and portions of Alaska, using their own Wi-Fi-enabled laptops, tablets, smartphones, electronic flight bags and other mobile devices. NetJets, a Berkshire Hathaway company based in Columbus, Ohio, has the largest fleet of private jets in the world.

Boulder-based Campus Publishers, a division of Redrock Publishing Co., has added two guides — for the University of Northern Colorado in Greeley and for Portland State University in Oregon — to its family of 41 official university visitor guides. Both guides will make their debuts in fall 2013.

Sunflower Preschool Inc., 3340 Dartmouth Ave., Boulder, has earned the national designation of a certified Nature Explore Classroom from the Arbor Day Foundation and Dimensions Educational Research Foundation.

GRANTS

A team from the University of Colorado-Boulder will receive a grant of about $450,000 to use tools at the Oak Ridge National Laboratory to research high-temperature inexpensive materials for photovoltaic and concentrating solar power technologies. Nationally, five projects have been awarded a total of $3.5 million to establish research programs at a Scientific User facility to conduct this solar-energy research. These projects are part of the U.S. Department of Energy’s efforts to encourage collaboration among engineers and scientists who are developing advanced solar-power technologies and research teams using the tools and expertise of the Scientific User Facilities.

MERGERS & ACQUISITIONS

DEUS Rescue, a company that sells a descent-braking device for climbers, acquired its partner company VR-Tec GmbH in Germany for an undisclosed sum. Boulder-based Spidescape Products Inc., which goes by the trade name DEUS Rescue, has 10 employees and plans to hire a few more as a result of the acquisition.

Boulder-based private equity firm Grey Mountain Partners and its affiliate company, Denver-based Consolidated Glass Holdings, Inc., have acquired Insulpane and Orchard Glass Distributors. Hamden, Connecticut-based Insulpane is an architectural glass fabricator and distributor serving a customer base across the Northeast. Orchard Glass Distributors is a wholesale distributor of flat glass, mirrors and shower doors; it primarily serves Connecticut, New York and New Jersey.

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